- Gigantic crater in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, opened at 7.30am today
- 17 homeowners have been evacuated and one house is on its brink
- Police: We are working with council, engineers and utilities companies
- One woman who was evacuated claimed ground had been sinking for weeks
- It comes after several sinkholes opened thanks to heavy rain battering UK
- Craters are caused when water ebbs away at soil creating unstable caverns
- Hertfordshire has a long history of chalk mining which could be a factor
By DAN BLOOM
A huge sinkhole has opened up in a suburban cul-de-sac, forcing 17 houses to be evacuated and leaving one home teetering on the brink of a 20ft drop.
Police officers cordoned off the road in Hemel Hertforshire, Hertfordshire, after the 35ft-wide crater appeared at 7.30am following weeks of rain.
One woman who was evacuated told local radio station Heart the ground had been sinking for weeks, reporter Amy Woodfield said on Twitter.
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Teetering: The corner of a house has been left dangling perilously over a 20ft sinkhole in Hemel Hempstead
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Dramatic: 17 houses have been evacuated in from the quiet suburban cul-de-sac in Hertfordshire
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Authorities are looking into it: The sinkhole is the latest in a string of landslips caused by extreme weather
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Gaping: A sinkhole 35ft wide and 20ft deep appeared this morning in a suburban cul-de-sac in Hemel Hempstead, Hertforshire, after weeks of heavy rain. 17 homes were evacuated
A Hertfordshire police spokesman said: 'The hole, which is in a residential cul de sac, has mainly affected the road.
'However, 17 properties have been evacuated for the safety of residents in the area.
'The hole is approximately 35ft wide and 20ft deep.
'Police are working with partner agencies, including Dacorum Borough Council, specialist structural engineers and utilities companies to assess the situation.
'The road, and surrounding roads, have been closed for the safety of residents and whilst agencies work at the scene.'
The house could be seen being held up by triangular struts as dozens of police officers and utility workers gathered around it.
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Evacuated: The crater opened up in a quiet suburb of Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire
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Destroyed: The hole was littered with what looked like pipework and fencing. Police are investigating
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Investigation: Police have been at the scene since the sinkhole suddenly opened up at 7.30am today
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Police: A spokesman said the force was working with 'Dacorum Borough Council, specialist structural engineers and utilities companies to assess the situation'
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Hole: At first glance the sinkhole appears like an ordinary flower bed - but it is some 20ft deep, said police
WHY DO SINKHOLES HAPPEN?
Urban sinkholes are more common after heavy rain, because they are caused by water flowing through channels below ground and eroding away soil or soft rock like limestone.
As the earth is carried into other parts of the ground large caverns can open up, usually unknown to the authorities or the people living above them
Once the cavern cannot support the weight of the topsoil above it, it collapses into the ground.
One of the world's largest sinkholes, the Xiaozhai Tiankeng in China, is more than 2,000ft deep.
Affinity Water spokesman Nigel Beaven said: 'We're working on a communication pipe that was exposed as a result of the sinkhole.'
It comes after a 15ft-deep hole appeared on the central reservation of the M2 near Sittingbourne, Kent, on Tuesday.
Initially thought by the authorities to be a sinkhole, it was revealed to be a chalk well called a Dene hole, a structure made up of several underground caves accessed by a vertical shaft.
Hertfordshire, the site of today's hole, has a history of chalk mining dating back to Roman times. Chalk was used since the Medieval period as a building material.
There are more than 100 historic mines known throughout the county but when the mining stopped, the entrances to their vertical shafts were not recorded properly and can cause nasty surprises for homeowners later on.
About 100 years ago 'chalk-drawers' worked throughout the Chiltern Hills, mining chalk from shafts up to 30ft deep which have since caused countless small collapses in fields, according to the Hertfordshire Geological Society.
Earlier this month, a sinkhole measuring 30ft deep swallowed up a car after opening up on the driveway of Phil and Liz Conran's home in High Wycombe.
Nobody was inside the Volkswagen Lupo - owned by their devastated daughter Zoe, 19 - when the ground gave way underneath it.
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Good as new: Zoe Smith, 19, with her new car after her local council filled in a 30ft hole with concrete
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Dude, where's my car? Zoe's Volkswagen Lupo vanished into this hole on her parents' drive
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Huge: This 15ft-deep hole on the central reservation of the M2 in Kent was discovered to be a chalk well
The family said there was no indication that the sinkhole would appear on February 2.
Mrs Conran, a 51-year-old school bursar, said at the time: 'The actual size of it is what I think has taken us most by surprise - it's just swallowed the car whole.'
Zoe expressed her delight after motoring website Auto Trader bought her a new car this week after the council plugged the hole with concrete.
She had gone into hysterics after discovering her prized car had disappeared into the 30ft crater and was barely visible beneath mounds of earth.
But bosses at digital retailer Auto Trader read news reports of the incident and invited Zoe to choose a replacement vehicle, meeting the £2,200 cost as a publicity stunt.
In December last year, torrential rain caused a 130-ft deep sinkhole to form in the Peak District, after part of the old Mill Dam Lead Mine near Buxton, Derbyshire, caved in.
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